Floods and fire!

Today I visited Mrs D and she was very happy to share more of her life stories with me. She's been through a lot in her life, and there is always something else she'd remember that I have not heard before, which I love to hear about. This time she was telling me about the time she was 14 years old and her youngest brother was a baby. Their mum had to go to Windsor and, instead of catching a bus, she had to go on a boat. There was flooding, the worst flooding that Mrs D can remember around Windsor. The water was just below the floorboards in their house. So, she and her baby brother were left at home, while their mum had to go get some essentials. And it happened that their chimney caught fire while just the two of them were at home. Young D quickly went navigating the outside water to tell her neighbor, who quickly came and threw salt in the fireplace. Mrs D didn't understand why salt, when there was so much water around... Nevertheless, the fire subsided in time and the immediate crisis was averted. When her mum returned, she asked young D why she let the chimney catch fire, at which she replied that "You don't let a chimney catch fire, it just happens!!" And that's so true and she managed very well under the circumstances!